Social media, Depression, & Suicide: What We Know & How Social Work Can Help
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The document discusses the complex relationship between social media use and mental health, particularly focusing on adolescents. It highlights both negative impacts, such as increased anxiety and depression due to social comparison, and positive aspects like enhanced self-disclosure and social support. Recommendations for social workers include providing tools for youth to navigate social media and encouraging open discussions about its risks and benefits.
![Popular Social Media Sites & Their Safety Policy
• Facebook Safety: https://www.facebook.com/safety
• Instagram:
Tips for Safety
https://help.instagram.com/377830165708421/?helpref=hc_fnav&bc[0]=In
stagram%20Help&bc[1]=Privacy%20and%20Safety%20Center
Tips for Parents
https://help.instagram.com/154475974694511/?helpref=hc_fnav&bc[0]=In
stagram%20Help&bc[1]=Privacy%20and%20Safety%20Center
• Snapchat Safety: https://www.snapchat.com/safety
• WhatsApp: https://faq.whatsapp.com/sv/general/21197244](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/socialmediadepressionsuicide-180412004226/85/Social-media-Depression-Suicide-What-We-Know-How-Social-Work-Can-Help-16-320.jpg)
Social media, Depression, & Suicide: What We Know & How Social Work Can Help
- 1. Social Media, Depression, & Suicide: What We Know and How Social Work Can Help BY SEAN ERREGER, LCSW (@STUCKONSW) FOR THE SOCIAL WORK HELPER, WORLD SOCIAL WORK DAY CONFERENCE ON 3/20/18
- 2. Objectives: • Does Social Media Increase Adolescent Depression? - Causation Vs. Correlation -What the Research Says • Tips for Engaging Youth and Families around this discussion • Where to find fellow social workers and professionals interested in Depression, Suicide Prevention, and Technology?
- 4. What We Know: • Young Adults who use Instagram frequently compare their body image, and this leads to increased anxiety. • The number of “likes” that one achieves (or not) has an impact and creates a feedback loop • But does this mean social media “causes” mental health problems? • It what ways does social media impact mental health?
- 6. The Bad • “Recreational use of social media is associated with poor mental health outcomes in Adolescents” (Babic Et. Al. 2017) • “We find that Facebook usage increases users' engagement in social comparison and consequently decreases their happiness. Social comparison mediates the effect of Facebook on happiness, but only for the younger half of our sample and only for those who believe that others have many more positive experiences than they do” (Arad, Barzilay, & Perchick 2017). • “ ..it was demonstrated that taking a break from Facebook has positive effects on the two dimensions of well-being: our life satisfaction increases and our emotions become more positive.” Tromholt (2016)
- 7. The Bad • “Adolescents who spent more time on new media (including social media and electronic devices such as smartphones) were more likely to report mental health issues, and adolescents who spent more time on nonscreen activities (in-person social interaction, sports/exercise, homework, print media, and attending religious services) were less likely” (Twenge et. al. 2018) • Compared with those in the lowest quartile, individuals in the highest quartiles of SM site visits per week and those with a higher global frequency score had significantly increased odds of depression (AOR=2.74, 95% CI=1.86–4.04; AOR=3.05, 95% CI=2.03–4.59, respectively). All associations between independent variables and depression had strong, linear, dose-response trends. Results were robust to all sensitivity analyses. (Sadini 2016 et. al)
- 8. The Good • “Girls endorsed some appearance concerns and social comparison, particularly with peers. However, they displayed high media literacy, appreciation of differences, and confidence, strategies that appeared helpful in mitigating the potential negative association between social media exposure and body image.” (Burnette, Kwitowski, & Mazzeo 2017). • Knutson (2017) demonstrated that Youth were more comfortable sharing feeling of grief on social media than face to face.
- 9. The Ugly • Those who used 7-11 social media platforms had higher levels of anxiety than those with 0-2 platforms (Primack Et. Al. 2017) • “The benefits of using online technologies were reported as increased self-esteem, perceived social support, increased social capital, safe identity experimentation and increased opportunity for self-disclosure. Harmful effects were reported as increased exposure to harm, social isolation, depression and cyber-bullying” (Best, Manktelow, and Taylor, 2014)
- 10. Let’s ask the Internet
- 11. Implications for Practice Transitioning from research to practice, the study conducted by (Gritton Et. Al. 2017) asked youth how they recognize “troubling content” ; they concluded .. “Many described feeling personally responsible for engaging with the person who posted the concerning content, but ill-equipped to offer help effectively. Youth recognized that they needed tools and training to help with these situations and referenced the importance of trusted adults.”
- 12. Implications for Practice • Give youth and families the tools they need to navigate the complexity of Social Media • Clinically working with youth emphasize choices and more harm reduction stance • Carefully think about SOCIAL MEDIA = BAD but also be aware of risks
- 13. Working with Youth: • Have an open conversation about risks and benefits about social media • Discuss the short term versus long term nature. Things like screen shots are FOREVER. • We as adults know what is unsafe but engage with them around concerns them about social media. • Ask questions and don’t assume it is having a negative impact. • Internet Safety Tips: http://www.casey.org/media/CLS_ResourceGuides_subdocs_SocialNetwor kTweensTeens.pdf
- 15. Crisis Text Line on Facebook Messenger
- 16. Popular Social Media Sites & Their Safety Policy • Facebook Safety: https://www.facebook.com/safety • Instagram: Tips for Safety https://help.instagram.com/377830165708421/?helpref=hc_fnav&bc[0]=In stagram%20Help&bc[1]=Privacy%20and%20Safety%20Center Tips for Parents https://help.instagram.com/154475974694511/?helpref=hc_fnav&bc[0]=In stagram%20Help&bc[1]=Privacy%20and%20Safety%20Center • Snapchat Safety: https://www.snapchat.com/safety • WhatsApp: https://faq.whatsapp.com/sv/general/21197244
- 17. Work with Parents • Social Media use is complicated with the Erickon’s developmental conflict of identity versus vs. role Confusion. • Transferring from child to young adulthood it can be difficult to define roles and increase independence. • Clinically, how is social media and usage of technology any different?
- 18. Implications for Parents • Encourage discussion and engagement around social media • Schedule weekly reviews of posts, timely news articles, celebrity use of social media • Read the youth guide provided earlier together • Consider using an app like Bark.us where parents and youth co- create what it going to be monitored.
- 19. Parental Control Apps • Researchers (Wisniewski et. al 2017) noted that most parental control apps were more about parents blocking and monitoring than co-creating what social media content is looked at. • From the social work perspective we should be working towards co- creating social media safety. • Perhaps examining from a more harm reduction stance.
- 20. Professional to Professional Use of Social Media • Social Work and Technology: Google Plus Group: https://plus.google.com/communities/115588985317830085141 Hashtag #SWtech • Suicide Prevention on Social Media Twitter Chat Information at www.spsmchat.com Hashtag #SPSM
- 21. Connect and Contact • Sean Erreger, LCSW • www.StuckOnSocialWork.com • @stuckonsw on Twitter and Instagram • [email protected]
- 22. References • Arad, Ayala and Barzilay, Ohad and Perchick, Maayan, The Impact of Facebook on Social Comparison and Happiness: Evidence from a Natural Experiment (February 13, 2017). • Gritton, J., Rushing, S. C., Stephens, D., Dog, T. G., Kerr, B., & Moreno, M. A. (2017). Responding to concerning posts on social media: Insights and solutions from American Indian and Alaska Native youth. American Indian & Alaska Native Mental Health Research: The Journal of the National Center, 24(3). • Babic, M.J, Smith J.J, Morgan PJ, Eather N., Plotnikoff R.C, & Lubans D.R. , Longitudinal associations between changes in screen-time and mental health outcomes in adolescents; Mental Health and Physical Activity, Vol.12, Pg. 124-131 • Best P, Manktelow R and Taylor BJ (2014). ‘Online communication, social networking and adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review’. Children and Youth Services Review. 41, 27-36 • Burnette, C. B., Kwitowski, M. A., & Mazzeo, S. E. (2017). “I don’t need people to tell me I’m pretty on social media:” A qualitative study of social media and body image in early adolescent girls. Body image, 23, 114-125. • Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Barrett, E. L., Sidani, J. E., Colditz, J. B., & James, A. E. (2017). Use of multiple social media platforms and symptoms of depression and anxiety: A nationally-representative study among US young adults. Computers in human behavior, 69, 1-9. Tromholt. M (2016 The Facebook Experiment: Quitting Facebook Leads to Higher Levels of Well-Being Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. November 2016, 19(11): 661-666.
- 23. References • Knutson, K. (2017). The Impact of Social Media on Adolescent Grief. • Sidani, J. E., Shensa, A., Radovic, A., Miller, E., Colditz, J. B., Hoffman, B. L., ... & Primack, B. A. (2016). Association between social media use and depression among US young adults. Depression and anxiety, 33(4), 323-331. • Twenge, J. M., Joiner, T. E., Rogers, M. L., & Martin, G. N. (2018). Increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among US adolescents after 2010 and links to increased new media screen time. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(1), 3-17. • Wisniewski, P., Ghosh, A. K., Xu, H., Rosson, M. B., & Carroll, J. M. (2017, February). Parental Control vs. Teen Self-Regulation: Is there a middle ground for mobile online safety?. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (pp. 51-69). ACM.